"Fun" Friday: Track Cleats

I haven't had much time for my blogs lately and didn't come up with a fun Friday brain teaser. So I am going to post a story I posted yesterday on facebook.

So here's kind of a cool story. I took Kayla to counseling (that's not the cool part) and on the way back to school I decided to stop at Catholic Charities because I'd heard they had cleats in all sizes, and I figured she could use a pair to grow into. Well, there were none in her size so we left. When we got outside she asked if we could go back in and look in the cart of $1 shoes. Well, why not? I saw what looked like running shoes on the top of the cart and turned them over to look for a size, and they were track cleats! A size too big for her, but not for long I'm sure. But the cool part (besides getting track cleats for $1) was that there was a Scripture reference written in them. Habakkuk 3:19 which says, "The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights." I told Kayla that must be God's message to her for track this year.

Doing it All at Once

I haven't been on my blog as much as usual. The reason is that we have had several projects going on. A couple of months ago we looked at a waterfront house. We were really interested, but it didn't seem like the right house for us because it was a duplex, and I have a drummer and two trombone players. The location was great though. We also realized we need to get our house paid down more and also make some repairs.

The list of repairs was long, but mostly things like new flooring in the kitchen, new decks on both sides, replacing woodwork that is water damaged and so on. So I decided to use my birthday money (today is actually my birthday, but we bought the tile three weeks ago.) We also sold our wooden swingset and bought boards for one of the decks.

About this time, an adoption caseworker from the state called to say he was coming on January 6. Yikes! That gave us less than three weeks to do the decks and flooring. We jumped right in with the flooring and the first part went pretty well, but cutting the tile to fit around door frames and the little pieces around the edge got crazy.

When we pulled the old linoleum, we wrote our favorite verses on the wooden floor before we laid the tile.

First tile laid.

Replacing water damaged bottom piece.

We also started pulling apart both decks thinking it would just as easy to do both at once. They are both very small. One deck was built under Jessica's direction a few years ago. The other was here when we bought the house. It has steps up both sides, so we left one side so we'd have a way to get into the house. The problem was, it turned out the risers were rotted on those steps. Risers were $200 each so Rick made a pattern and cut the risers himself. We also decided to have just a single set of steps on that side.

So the past couple of weeks we've been laying tile, cutting wood, building steps and so on. Also during this I've been dealing with an injured elbow, so didn't get to do much of the building. So I did a lot of waterproofing boards and painting woodwork. We didn't get everything quite done, but did a good job of hiding it!

I don't have pictures of everything finished, but I do have a few of the inside of  the house in general.

My office that I share with everyone.

I will get some of the finished projects next time and also share the cool part of the adoption home study visit.

Forgot to Post the Pictures

The first Saturday in January we had breakfast with Santa. I didn't get that great of pictures because my Nikon was in the shop. But Santa's helpers took photos. I didn't get them for a while, but then I forgot to post them. So here they are late!

River is One!

River turned one on Friday, but we celebrated on Thursday.

Wearing Jessica's hat

She was a bit overwhelmed at the amount of people and gifts. She'd just open something cool to play with when someone would take it away and hand her a new package.

She wasn't sure how to get started. It would make sense to have a little cutout area where she could get to the cake part easier.

On her actual birthday I took River and Jessica to the Chinese buffet.

Finally got  a smile!

Fun Friday: How Many Blocks are There?

I am borrowing this from the page listed on the picture. Don't cheat. How many blocks are there? Post settings Labels Schedule Permalink Location Options

Christmas Day

Those of us at home. Kayla is really that much taller than the others.

Jasmine liked her new jacket.

And her books from Uncle Ken.

The new DS was no surprise to Tyler since he picked it out.

Adam, Tara, Kealen and Sierra came over for  lunch.

Yes, we did all play Disney Uno.

The kids made a birthday cake for Jesus, and Kealen blew out the candles.

A week or so ago Jessica took River to see Santa. It looks like she had a lot to say to him!

The kids got tools for Christmas, and we put them to work right away on three projects that we need to finish before our home study begins. But that is a post in itself.